Philippine bond market grows by 13% in Q4

MANILA, Philippines — The domestic bond market rose by 13.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 from a year ago, driven by government issuances, according to the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

The Asia Bond Monitor report for March 2023 of the ADB showed the local currency bond market went up to P11.196 trillion in the fourth quarter from P9.880 trillion in the same period in 2021.

Quarter-on-quarter, the fourth quarter figure grew by 0.2 percent from P11.171 trillion in the third quarter.

The government-issued Treasury bills and bonds, as well as Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas securities amounted to P9.593 trillion in the fourth quarter last year, up by 14.7 percent from P8.365 trillion in the same period in 2021.

Compared to the P9.636 trillion in the third quarter, government issuances in the fourth quarter were down by 0.4 percent.

Government issuances accounted for 85.7 percent of the local bond market in the fourth quarter.

Corporate bonds reached P1.603 trillion, 5.8 percent higher than the P1.515 trillion in the same period in 2021.

On a quarterly basis, corporate bonds increased by 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter from P1.535 trillion in the third.

The outstanding local bonds of the country’s top 30 corporate issuers reached P1.453 trillion at the end of December last year, accounting for 90.6 percent of the total local currency corporate bond market.

By sector, banking continued to have the largest share of the corporate bond market at 32.8 percent.

This was followed by property firms with a 28.7 percent share, and holding firms at 22.4 percent.

Topping the list of local currency corporate bond issuers was San Miguel with a 10.2 percent share of the total corporate bond market.

Ayala Land came in next with a 9.3 percent share, followed by SM Prime Holdings with 7.5 percent.

In emerging East Asia, which covers the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Hong Kong and South Korea, the local currency bond stock stood at $23.2 trillion at end of December 2022, up by 9.9 percent year-on-year and by 1.2 percent quarter-on-quarter.